The Old Man

We drove north along the shore of the St. Lawrence River to visit the Kiskotuk Park. We passed many farms. There was a crop growing with yellow flowers and it was stunning to see. We stopped at several observation platforms that looked out over the marsh and the water. We saw lots and lots of birds. Even with binoculars, they were too far away to identify.

Fields of some type of root crop. if you know comment below!

On our route, we saw a house that had lots of little houses, a little church, and a little lighthouse sitting in the front yard. I stopped to photograph them and an old man came out of the house to talk to me. He did not speak any English and I realized during our conversation just how poor my French is. The old man wanted to talk. He kept talking and I didn’t understand anything he was saying. He asked me into his house and showed me a painting on the wall. He had a lot to say to me about the painting and I understood none of it. It was very sad. He had so much to say and I would love to have understood it. There were probably at least 20 more little houses in his backyard. (Regis edit: These houses were hand make, probably by the old man. Pretty darn sure I saw that church in town!) Darn I wish my French was better.

The car, RV, and bikes got covered with grime. They acquired a continent’s worth of dirt in our travels. I have been on the lookout for a car wash to clean the car but have not seen any. Campgrounds do not allow you to wash your vehicle on site. Today, I decided to do something about it. I got out a bottle of Invisible Glass and a huge roll of paper towels. I cleaned both bikes and the car. It would have been a lot easier with a hose and a bucket of water, but it did a pretty good job and I feel so much better. Even though it is not surprising to see Jeeps dirty, it bothered me.

In the evening, we went down to the water to watch the sunset. A lot of people do that. They all started to gather to enjoy the show. As soon as the sun dipped below the horizon, most people left. But, the best colors for a sunset show up after the sun sets. You should hang around for about a half hour after sunset to enjoy them.

Sun down downSun gone, but not forgotten with colors like this

Post script: As were leaving our campsite this morning, we saw a car wash. It was less than ½ mile from our site. I could have coasted from our campsite into the car wash without starting the engine. Regis says I might have lost some momentum going into the bay, but could succeed if I set out to do it with reckless abandon. We drove by this place multiple times and the sign says Lave-Auto and it looks like multiple service bays. I forgot that Lave means wash. There are some service bays but a few of them are for washing your car. Encroyable!